Video games have evolved throughout the years. They are no longer confined to simple first-person shooters or fighting tournaments. Now, you can choose to wreak havoc as a goose in a village or try to complete a dish with your friends while avoiding passing pedestrians. Creating worlds and constructing buildings have also become a popular game mechanic, engaging the creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking of players. If you are the type to tinker with Legos or come up with complicated backstories for your stuffed toys and dolls, then you might love these creation-driven video games.
1. Minecraft
This popular award-winning sandbox video game takes landscape design to a whole new level. You can recreate the popular canyon parks in Utah, build an underwater palace, or even design a rollercoaster theme park. The possibilities are endless in Minecraft, where you can use natural resources like wood and ores to design different worlds. Players are not limited to one linear path, allowing them the flexibility to play the game according to their preferences.
2. The Sims
Published by Electronic Arts, the Sims is one of the all-time best-selling personal computer games with 200 million copies sold worldwide. The game’s life simulation mechanic led to its popularity, where one can explore, experiment and build lives through controlled characters called Sims. You can play god and choose how your Sims will go through life – their jobs, romantic partners, and even cause of death. Some players have also used the game to design elaborate houses, sharing their builds within the online community.
3. Anno 2205
Why stop at building just one city when you can colonize the moon? With Anno 2205, you can create a futuristic world with cutting-edge skyscrapers and set up trade routes between the earth and your lunar colony. Players must balance certain factors an economy needs to thrive like goods production, infrastructure, and population satisfaction while keeping greedy investors and disgruntled employees at bay.
4. Cities in Motion
Ever daydreamed about improving your public transport system while stuck in traffic? Cities in Motion by Colossal Order will satisfy player’s urges to build the ideal commuting environment. Routes for trains, boats, buses and even helicopters can be built in the game’s rapidly growing virtual cities. However, like any transportation company, staying profitable is a key aspect of the game. Players can set ticket prices, respond to complaints of impatient passengers, and hire inspectors to catch turnstile jumpers.
5. Civilization
Civilization, as its name suggests, is a turn-based strategy game where players must build an empire to last through ages. If you were the leader of a civilization, will you go to war to get more resources or choose to invest in research and agriculture? Civilization emphasizes the slow but steady growth of development, focusing on reaching smaller milestones rather than showy grandstanding scenes commonly found in action-packed gameplay.
6. Design Home: House Makeover
Tired of old carpets and drab wall color in your apartment but can’t do anything since you’re renting? This mobile application for Android and Apple allows you to be an interior decorator with a few quick clicks from your drag down inventory. Players get to pick furniture pieces and decorate their dream bedroom, kitchen, or living room while submitting them to the community for judging with bonus pieces of furniture as the reward.
Video games are slowly being accepted as education tools that can unleash creativity and develop critical skills, which is a far cry from decades of suspicion and hostility. Put on your architect hat and try these games out.
